Posted on 02/14/2009 10:03:07 AM PST by djf
I have decided to start a thread focusing on edible weeds. Many of the common plants we see everyday are edible, and while most are not hugely palatable or nutritious, a few are truly very good.
If you would like to post a recipe, please post recipes related to these plants only.
As always, an extreme amount of caution is advised. It's probably true that 90 percent or so of plants are actually edible, there is a small percentage that if you eat them, you WON'T have to worry about eating again!
Oleander comes to mind, it would take less than two leaves to kill an average person.
So be careful.
I remember going out into the woods to gather those wild grapes with my grandfather. Make good wine and jelly.
‘My dad says his mother would cook wild mushrooms with a silver dollar in olive oil and a cast iron skillet. If the silver dollar turned black, she would throw them out. I would never try such a stunt nowadays and would never advise anyone to try it.’
I’d advise to just forget about wild mushrooms. Mushrooms, I can live without.
It’s just an Obama lover trying to be cute.
Actually, I was curious, so I googled it.
It does occur to me, though, that when we sold that house in MI, the trees were worth more than the dang house!
I don't know about digitalis, but I would die without my nightshades...........what would life be without tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes?
Oh, yeah. Forgot. Like tomatoes..nightshade family. They used to think them poisonous.
Well, alter that to read ‘nighshade weeds’ I guess. LOL
The US isn’t North Korea yet.
No, digitalis comes from foxgloves. Nightshades have a different poison, but its not always found throughout the plant. Tomatoes and potatoes are safe, but not the tomato-like berry from the potato plant.
There is a dark purple or black nightshade berry that’s edible, but I’m not ready to gamble on which one it is yet.
Exactly. They are not all poisonous.
In fact when I first started gardening and noticed them, I was ready to swear they were some kind of mutant tomato.
Personally, I would stay away from them unless it was my last resort - but as I said, I have eaten them and they are very, very close to tomatoes.
Good thing they’re so tiny and you get less from eating them than you get from finding and chewing them.
I wonder if it’s possible to hybridizr them with tomatoes?
I don’t know, JDB. My grandmother called them huckleberries, so that’s what I called them. They were not blue in color. They were smaller than a blueberry and much darker...almost black. They were abundant on my grandparents’ property.
I became curious after you mentioned that you had never seen huckleberries in the South, and searched online. Here is one thing I came across:
http://www284.pair.com/florists/all-about-flowers/Huckleberries.htm
I know what you mean about the wild garlic. We had wild onions too. Really strong smell when you cut them.
We had wild pecan. It is very small with a hard shell. The nut meat has a stronger flavor. I guess it’s because they have more oil in the meat. Very good.
I used to love persimmons when I was a kid. You have to know when to eat them, or you won’t like them. Ha.
I haven’t eaten many of these things mentioned on this thread in years, but I’m wanting to find them now and try them again. I know right where to go to find some of them. Others may be a bit more difficult to find now.
I have a lot of good memories like that too. It was fun. Many kids these days have missed out on a lot, I think.
There was nothing better to eat for breakfast than my grandmother’s homemade biscuits, butter, jams and jellies, especially when I had helped churn the butter and pick the fruit.
My greatgrandfather and grandfather used to cure their own meat. My grandmother canned meats too, and vegetables, and fruits.
You are so right about that, but I'm not contributing to the situation as my own mother did. I can't say I have ever churned butter, but my 10 year old can make bread and biscuits and helps me pick the fruits and veggies and helps me with the canning, and jam and jelly making. I'm 48 and pretty much self taught in all of it.
That is wonderful, Gabz! Your ten year old probably enjoys it now, but her appreciation for that knowledge and those skills will grow through the years, not to mention the loving memories she will have of sharing those things with you. They are certainly some of my best memories of childhood with my grandparents and parents, and aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Hubby and I have talked a lot lately about how thankful we are that we have the knowledge and skills to survive off of the land, and that we enjoy it.
Thank you, LucyJo!
When we’re “playing” in the kitchen or out in the garden we’ve had some interesting conversations about the fact that my mother didn’t do these kinds of things, let alone do them with me. When she felt she “had to” my mother could make great chocolate chip cookies, or chocolate cake. I do it because I like to and want to do it.
My grandmother would bake, but by the time I was deemed “old enough” to get involved in the stuff in the kitchen, my grandparents had moved 1500 miles away. And by the time I was even interested, my grandmother no longer really was and summers in southwestern Florida was really not conducive to baking. So, my daughter and I have pretty much learned how to make pie crust together.
I’m originally a city girl, who now lives in the country and so all this info here on this thread, and ones like it, is really fascinating to me. I’m pretty much a strictly edible gardener, IOW I don’t do flowers, unless they are the blossoms on my veggies and herbs!
Yep. The ones that are a little too green can make you pucker real well. You never you thought you could whistle that good.
JDB - We currently have wild huckleberries on our land and my 3 brothers and I have picked them when we were younger eons ago. That’s the only name I’ve ever heard them called by aroound here. The bushes aren’t more than a foot or two high and the berries aren’t more than a third to half as big as a domestic blueberry. I have domestic blueberry bushes but have never seen wild blueberry bushes per se, that I know of. I’d always thought wild blueberries were generally up north. I imagine they’re all related though.
On our 100 acre homestead which is mostly forested I've found a few large black walnut, wild persimmon, sassefras, and hickory nut trees by the hundreds. Although not edible, we also have a number of "toothache trees" (prickly ash), used for medicinal purposes by old-timers. Cut a small piece of slick bark off the trunk, chew it a little to release the juice and then stick it on your gums next to the bad tooth, and in just a minute or two that area becomes numb temporarily reducing the toothache. I always love to watch folks reaction when I get them to try a piece for the first time. LOL!
LOL. I remember that pucker, and there wasn’t much you could do about it.
My greatgrandfather told me that they were ready to eat after the first frost.
How sad that your grandmother and mom and you missed out on the good times that you and your daughter are sharing now. It’s great that you are making up for that with your daughter, and the fact that you are learning some of these things together is extra special. You can’t buy good memories like that.
I enjoyed it with my daughter too. She was standing in the chair at the cabinet beside me stirring cornbread, pancakes, and brownies by the time she was three years old. She loves to cook today, and she is a very good cook.
You may have been a city girl, but you must be a country girl at heart! : )
Many vegetables do have pretty flowers. I’m thinking of squash blossoms in particular, and they’re good to eat too.
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